Irving Oil Spending $20 Million in St. John’s Terminal Upgrade
SAINT JOHN–Irving Oil is spending nearly $20 million to upgrade its marine terminal in St. John’s harbour.
The project is intended to improve capacity at the existing facility to reduce waiting times for ships working in the Newfoundland and Labrador offshore oil industry.
“Where we are running into congestion is ships coming in to fuel and that’s why we are adding additional capacity,” said Mike Thompson, Irving Oil’s director of logistics and distribution.
“The jetty we do have in St. John’s is essentially almost fully utilized, so to meet the needs of our customers and serve future customers we thought it is important to build a second jetty which is really what this $20 million project is all about.”
“It’s going to allow us to double our capacity and satisfy existing and future customers,” said Thompson.
The investment in Newfoundland and Labrador follows the start of an $80 million project in Halifax, where an old Irving Oil marine terminal is being extensively refurbished.
“Making investments in strategic assets to meet our customer needs and keep growing is something that our company is always going to do. The fact here is that we’re spending $100 million between these two projects in a relatively short period of time, but for the right reasons,” said Thompson.
The plunge in oil prices hasn’t changed Irving Oil’s mind about opportunities in Newfoundland and Labrador.
“We look at all these investments over a longer-term horizon. What we are seeing right now is the projects that have been online are continuing. We can certainly continue to sell to the existing customer base…we would anticipate that as markets rebound that offshore activity will as well,” notes Irving Oil’s Steve McLaughlin.
Irving Oil’s Newfoundland and Nova Scotia projects should help ensure greater security of fuel supply in Atlantic Canada. On last year’s Labour Day weekend, a delayed delivery to Imperial Oil’s terminal in Halifax led to a gasoline shortage in Nova Scotia that lasted several days. Interruptions to gasoline supply have also been an issue in Newfoundland and Labrador.
“There are fewer refineries today in the region than there would have been historically, and we’ve also witnessed and experienced ourselves various supply disruptions in these markets,” says McLaughlin.
“When we think about our supply chain and how we can serve customers and offer them secure and reliable supply in these markets, and how it complements aspirations we have to grow, we would have felt it necessary to make investments in both markets.”
The proximity of Irving Oil’s refinery is another advantage to ensuring a steady supply of fuel in Newfoundland. “We’re only a one day sail from our refinery in Saint John which is the largest refinery in Canada so this investment will not only provide a means by which we can meet our customer needs but it should also strengthen the supply chain in the province,” said Thompson.
Construction is now underway at Irving Oil’s St. John’s marine terminal. It is expected to be finished in early 2017.